Living with an Acoustical Line Source

[reeltrouble1]

Read the link to ML, agree totally different speaker design, I would however not want people to think the Sound Labs are all huge speakers, yes, they do make some that are nearly 9ft tall, however, mine measure a bit under six feet and are around 30" wide and fit well in my present room.

The fellow who said he has "heard" them (SL) and found them cool, was rebutted by the others, I would agree, the speaker is neutral with extreme clarity but the treble is very sweet sounding, by adding or removing bias from the panel you can change the sound, however, what is really happening especially with sand amps is as you remove bias you lose sensitivity, with the high impedance in the bass the amplifier cannot keep up and the sound distorts with the very low impendance for the treble again the amp struggles. The best sand amps for these speakers incorporate many capacitors for energy storage in their design. Tube amps do a bit better with the voltage swings the tube make possible, but as I said earlier selection of the amplifier and other upstream gear is key. The BAT Pre-amp I use does have nice synergy with the Wolcotts along with the Musical Fidelity KW SACD and a heavily modded Rega P-25 TT.

EL-34 tubes are readily available, somewhere around 25 each, average around five years lifetime depending on use, so retubing is not really all that expensive to me, there is one of the driver side tubes the 6gw8 becoming a bit rare, each amp takes two, right now they are running 75 each but they last up to 10 years, the other two driver tubes are common 12ax7, available all over the net, the circuit design does not require matched tubes additionally tube rolling is not recommended as the design does not allow tube coloration of the signal.

Here are some more shots of the speakers.

RT1

[F1nut]

I'm glad the move has worked out and that you're enjoying the music again. I'm looking forward to getting my ears on your rig, but please remove the garlic from the room as I found it very distracting at PF.

[BrettT1]

...sweet

[PolkClyde]

Ted has a very nice sounding system .The clarity is outstanding great for jazz,country and classical A+ with this kind of music Not good for Hard rock,SOUL or anything with low bass notes. say maybe roll off around 100hz. All in All I give Ted's rig 5 star. I am a Celine deion fan now because of Ted. The vocals are in your face. Thanks Ted for the wonderful Hospitality and the things you gave me to stop my cd player from skipping it solved the problem.


PolkClyde

Brunswick Georgia

[TroyD]

I'm touching myself right now....I GOTS to hear those.

Hawkeye,

ESL's are definately more prone to issues which is inherent in the design....not just a Quad thing. I've owned 2 (well, three, really) pairs of Quads. They are expensive to fix...but I wouldn't say that the quality of Quads is subpar as I've heard nightmares about ML's and so forth as well. According to Randy at QS&D, in terms of quality, the 988/989s were an improvement in quality over the 63's and the 2805/2905's are a step up from there. Plus, there are a **** ton of 57's still in service...

BDT

[Hawkeye]

As I mentioned earlier, the thread at MLC just got a little more interesting! One guy there has auditioned both the ML CLX and the SL U-1PX and has said if he was to buy a speaker today it would have to be the SL. Quite an endorsement from a die hard ML guy! He gives a fairly clean writeup. Looks like I'm going to have to get my ears on these before I commit to the CLX, that is after I play with the Amazings for abit!

TroyD, I didn't mean to imply that there was a big problem with reliablity with the Quads. Several posters have noted that they are being produced "off shore" China, if I recall correctly, and recent QC had some shortcomings. If I came across that way, I apologize since that was certainly not my intent.

Gordon

[dorokusai]

Russman vs Soundlab, right rear channel of the Kimber Quadraphonic.

[TroyD]

Gordon, no sweat, man.....having the 63's and the 988's...the 988's are MUCH better built. Talking with Randy at QS&D, the QC thing is what it is.....while Quads will never be equated with Honda or Toyota, he seems to think that overall, the quality of the Chinese products is better....

BDT

[reeltrouble1]

Russman vs Soundlab, right rear channel of the Kimber Quadraphonic.

Holy cow, a speaker wider than the Rooster Man. Two of them side by side. I am a bit freaked.

never heard it but sure looks like awesome hi-fi.

Edit correction post 31......the Wolcott does not use 12ax7 they are 6922's, what was I thinking, nothing like knowing your own gear>>>>>

RT1

[DarqueKnight]

Edit correction post 31......the Wolcott does not use 12ax7 they are 6922's, what was I thinking, nothing like knowing your own gear>>>>>

Maybe you're spending more time listening to your gear than looking at it??


I'd like to get my ears Sound Labs on those if I'm ever in your area.:)